A core of an NHL team functionally is the players that you have signed for three or more years that you have no intention of trading under normal circumstances. As such these players become those who have the longest tenure on your team and perpetuate the team culture, teaching newer or more transient players the way.
Who those players actually are likely varies greatly from year to year if not even month to month. I don't think that any GM has the same "core" in mind over a long period of time.
Under that definition the Flames core right now is Monahan, Lindolm, Tkachuck (because of his rfa status), Hanifin and Andersson.
I didn't include Lucic or Backlund because they would get traded, if any team was willing to give value back.
Gaudreau and Gio are not a part of the core because their contracts expire soon ish. Although Gio probably deserves to be called a part of the core because he will likely retire a Flame.
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